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^^WE•l]NIVER%       ^lOSANCEiefy. 

1^1  ISEl 


To  Abolish  Capital 
Punishment 


A  Plea  to  the  Citizens  of  Every  Country 


Extracts   from   Addresses   by 

KATHERINE    TINGLE Y 

Leader  of  the  Theosophical  Movement  Throughout  the  World 


I 1 


Puhhshed  by  the 

Men's  and  Women's  International  Theosophical 
Leagues  of  Humanity 

POINT   LOIVIA,   CALIFORNM,   U.   S.   A. 


I 1 


Prpce,  postpaid,  10  cents  in  the  United  States,  5d.  in  England 


' 1 


Order  from  the  Secretary  "Woman's  International  Theosophical  League,  Point  Loma,  California 

or  from  The  Theosophical  Book  Co>,  18  Bartlett's  Buildings 

Holhom  Circus,  London,  E  C^  England 


i^^. 


IMMENSE    AUDIENCE    ENDORSES 

KATHERINE     TINGLEY'S     APPEAL    TO    ABOLISH 

CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT 


Extracts  from  the  Theosophical  Leader's  Address 


(From  the  San  Diego  Union,  April  6,  1914) 


AST  night  at  Isis  Theater,  which  was  filled  to  its  capacity,  the  whole 
audience  save  six  responded  to  Katherine  Tingley's  appeal  for  a 
standing  vote  in  support  of  resolutions  for  the  abolishment  of  capital 
punishment. 

In  a  stirring  and  eloquent  appeal  Katherine  Tingley  spoke  right 
to  the  hearts  of  her  audience  and  by  the  force  of  her  arguments  won 
them  over  to  complete  sympathy  with  her.  The  meeting  was  opened  by  the  sing- 
ing of  songs,  exquisitely  rendered  by  the  Raja-Yoga  international  chorus  of  some 
fifty  voices,  and  the  reading  of  appropriate  quotations. 

Following  are  extracts  from  Katherine  Tingley's  address : 

"  While  we  are  in  this  atmosphere  of  music,  of  brotherly  love,  of  com- 
passion for  all  that  lives,  we  are  obliged  to  admit,  if  we  think  at  all,  that  human 
society  is  morally  bankrupt.  The  sooner  thinking  people  of  the  present  genera- 
tion admit  this  the  sooner  will  they  reach  a  point  of  discernment  whereby  they 
can  see  things  as  they  are  and  apply  the  remedy. 

Society  Morally  Bankrupt 

"  How  can  you  read  your  newspapers  daily,  as  you  do,  and  feel  satisfied  that 
all  is  well?  How  can  the  so-called  Christians  of  the  present  age  go  to  their 
prayers  and  to  their  homes  satisfied?  How  can  they  do  it?  I  ask  this  in  love, 
with  all  due  consideration  for  their  beliefs :  but  I  say,  how  can  they  do  it  ?  Is  it 
not  true,  if  we  think  well,  that  we  have  missed  the  real  meaning  of  the  teachings 
of  Christ  and  of  the  sages  of  old?  If  we  had  them  in  their  simplicity  and  clear- 
ness and  force  of  spiritual  life,  we  should  not  have  to  admit  that  society  morally 
is  bankrupt,  and  that  the  conditions  of  the  world  point  to  a  degeneracy  in  human 
nature  that  one  scarcely  dares  to  think  about. 

"  So  when  we  take  up  the  subject  of  capital  punishment,  before  we  look  at 
it  with  unfriendly  eyes,  we  must  consider  why  it  is^that  witlT^all__the__so-called 
education,  culture  and  the  prospelTtT-trf-ttrejtwenHeth  century^  there  is  thjs-great 
ga:p  between^ourserve?"alTd"ttre"^  Can  you  recaHjjiytliiiig-tbat-Christ 

eAreTTaugritror~aTiy-TjfniTr'Oreat^^  you,  or  the  people 

at  large,  in  taking  a  position  that  because  a  rrian2^ns_  jie  i^s  ^o  bT'condemned  ? 
That  because  he  has  sinned  h"eT$"t6  be  punished  Jjirauglijjie  Taws  of^man?  I 
find  nothing  in  the  teaching?  of'C-hrtsl-tcr'snpport  any  such  position. 

890221 


y  7<i 


4  TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT 

What  Is  the;  Remedy? 

"  You  have  a  perfect  right  to  feel  that  it  would  be  a  most  unwise  and  injudi- 
cious thing  for  us  to  attempt  at  this  moment  to  open  all  the  prison  doors  and  to 
let  the  unfortunates  go  free.  You  certainly  might  say  to  me:  You  have  a  theory 
that  capital  punishment  should  be  abolished,  but  where  is  your  remedy?  What 
are  we  to  do  with  these  unfortunates?  What  is  to  become  of  them?  Must  they 
be  allowed  to  go  at  large?  Must  they  be  permitted  to  continue  their  vices  and 
their  crimes?  No,  Theosophy  answers,  no;  but  Theosophy  says:  Treat  them 
as  something  more  than  mere  mortals.  .  .  . 

"  If  you  had  studied  your  own  lives  you  would  long  ago  have  reached  the 
causes  of  these  things  and  then  you  would  have  been  able  to  apply  the  remedy. 
Your  remedy  would  not  be  unbrotherly,  it  would  be  Christian-like ;  because,  if 
you  had  knowledge  of  the  Divine  Law,  the  heart  and  mind  would  be  illuminated 
by  its  light,  by  that  power  of  discernment  that  would  bring  about  conditions  so 
that  all  humanity,  knowing  its  responsibilities,  would  know  how  to  treat  the 
unfortunates. 

"All  down  these  years  that  you  have  come,  in  your  soul's  experience,  you  would 
have  been  teaching  and  working  and  serving,  and  today  there  would  not  be  a 
prison  in  the  land,  not  a  prison,  not  a  man  caged  and  bound  and  hunted  down, 
held  in  like  a  caged  animal.  No!  Mercy,  compassion,  knowledge,  wisdom  and 
discrimination  would  be  in  your  lives ;  you  would  have  realized  before  this  time 
that  those  in  prison  and  out  of  prison  who  have  sinned  —  indeed,  who  has  not 
sinnedj*  —  are^gptitled  to  that  kindof  treatment  thalJs-in-4iafmoayIIwitIi~1:he 
Higher  Law,  with  the  Divine~Law7they  would  be  treated  as  invalids. 

The  Eternal  Self  Forgotten 

"  You  treat  your  bodies  with  such  gentleness  and  consideration,  but  you  forget 
the  eternal  self,  the  soul,  the  Christos  within  you ;  and  so,  forgetting  it  in  your 
own  lives,  you  forget  it  in  the  lives  of  those  who  naturally  look  to  you  for  help 
and  example. 

"  So  you  see  I  am  not  so  far  away  from  the  truth  when  I  tell  you  that  human 
society  is  bankrupt;  that  the  moral  and  the  spiritual  life  is  not  a  living  power 
in  our  midst  today,  and  only  a  very  few  men  and  women  can  be  found  who  are 
peally  working  unselfishly;   only  a  few. 

"  If  we  are  to  discuss  this  subject  of  the  abolishment  of  capital  punishment, 
we  must  be  prepared  to  state  what  remedy  to  apply  in  its  stead ;  not  asking  for 
the  freedom  of  the  prisoners,  not  presuming  to  interfere  with  the  law  of  justice 
in  any  sense,  but  declaring  and  demanding  that  every  man  and  woman  under  the 
sun  shall  have  their  spiritual  rights. 

Humanity  Is  Indifferent 

"  Last  Friday  a  man  of  twenty-three  years  of  age,  with  not  a  very  bad  record 
in  the  past,  was  hanged  in  this  state.  Oh,  when  I  think  of  it,  when  I  think  of  it ! 
And  that  any  mortal,  any  human  being  can  think  of  it  and  can  look  on  the  picture 
for  even  a  moment,  and  be  at  ease !  That  is  what  alarms  me  —  to  find  the  human 
family  forgetful  —  worse,  indiflFerent !    That  is  the  horror  of  it ;  and  the  hardest 


TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT  5 

work  that  a  real  helper  of  humanity  has  in  carrying  the  spirit  of  reformation  to 
the  world  is  with  the  public;  it  is  with  the  minds  of  men;  it  is  with  the  people 
who  support  the  laws.  It  is  they  who  must  be  pleaded  with  and  cared  for  and 
also,  in  varying  degree,  treated  as  invalids. 

A  Daring  Speech 

"  This  is  a  daring  speech  of  mine,  but  it  is  true.  All  humanity  is  in  a  state  of 
invalidism,  and  so  again  that  statement  supports  the  idea  that  human  society 
is  bankrupt,  morally  and  spiritually.  And  so  with  the  different  aspects  that 
are  presented  to  me  tonight,  of  humanity  going  along  in  a  half-interested  way, 
some  totally  indifferent,  some  pretending  that  they  are  happy,  satisfied  as  long 
as  their  little  squirrel  cage  is  not  interfered  with,  satisfied  as  long  as  their  in- 
terests are  not  touched.  The  picture  is  appalling  —  humanity  in  its  unrest,  ignor- 
ance, despair  and  indifference,  with  its  weaklings  going  down  to  degradation,  and 
then  ending  up  in  prison;  and  we  humans,  we^of_God^s^reat  family, ^uppoged 
to  have  intellects  keen  enough  to_discern  right-aad— wrongv-perinit  them  to  be  -'' 
sentenced  to  death_ —  to  be  executed ! 

"  Think  of  it !  That  we  dare  to  support  laws  that  will  allow  such  brutal  and 
inhuman  work ;  that  we  dare  to  interfere  with  God's  laws ;  those  wonderful, 
divine  laws  that  guide  us  in  spite  of  ourselves. 

"  But  to  think  of  presuming  to  take  those  laws  and  to  defy  them  and  to  let  a 
soul  go  out  in  the  darkness,  in  the  shadows,  in  the  despair,  feeling  that  all  the 
world  is  against  it ;  to  take  a  life,  the  rope  around  the  neck ;  to  cut  down  the  body 
to  earth;  but,  oh,  ye  men  and  women  of  the  twentieth  century,  what  about  that 
soul? 

Blame  Yourselves 

"Are  you  not,  and  is  not  the  whole  human  family  responsible  for  that  act 
that  I  am  now  referring  to  and  for  all  acts  of  injustice?  Should  you  blame 
the  governors  and  the  law-makers?  No,  blame  yourselves.  Oh,  be  courageous 
and  blame  yourselves !  May  this  blame  sink  so  deeply  into  your  hearts  that  your 
consciences  will  take  new  life,  that  freedom  of  thought  will  come  to  you,  enlighten- 
ment, discernment,  the  power  to  see  the  injustice  of  things  as  they  now  are. 

"  When  you  reach  that  point,  a  new  life  will  come  to  glorify,  and  the  Christos 
spirit  will  begin  to  work  in  your  lives,  and  you  will  not  have  to  sit  down  and  discuss 
and  worry  and  be  afraid.  Afraid  of  what?  Afraid  that  if  capital  punishment 
should  be  abolished  we  should  have  more  crimes!  Let  some  one^briaglSLClproof 
fh^--rTrpiTnTj7i7T<;Virrient  h?"^  ip^Qfnpd  t^p'mp     What  evTdSiTCe' have  you? 

Tf  we  are  to  stem  the  tide  of  vice  and  degradation,  •we_jTiust  treat  these  un- 
fortujiateSj,  these  weaklings,  as  souls ;  not  intimidate  them,  not  arouse  their 
~1ower  natures,  not  create  a  larger  revenge^'iriore^assion^lmore  hate  for  the  world 
and  the  laws  of  men.  But  we  must  change  these  conditions  through  our  spiritual 
effort.  You  may  think  and  talk,  and  you  may  strain  your  intellects  to  the  utmost, 
you  may  have  your  societies  and  your  systems ;  you  may  make  laws  and  laws, 
and  yet  not  reach  a  solution  of  this  problem.  I  tell  you  that  I  know  this,  and  I 
know  it,  because  I  am  a  Theosophist. 


6  TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT 

Must  Have;  Courage 

"  I  know,  largely  from  my  association  with  criminals,  in  trying  to  help  them, 
that  we  never  can  restore  society  to  its  dignity,  we  never  can  restore  the  un- 
fortunate to  his  rights,  until  we  have  reached  that  point  of  spiritual  attainment, 
where  we  shall  know  right  from  wrong,  and  have  the  courage  to  declare  the 
right,  to  sustain  it  and  to  uphold  only  those  laws  that  make  for  the  betterment 
of  human  kind.  And  when  we  say  the  betterment  of  human  kind,  we  must  in- 
clude something  more  than  the  physical  life,  or  our  worldly  interests,  or  our 
society  aims,  or  our  pride. 

"  So  now  to  go  back  to  our  unfortunate  and  the  type  he  represents :  Let  us 
think,  at  the  present  time  when  our  prisons  are  overrun  with  criminals,  when  our 
youth  are  going  to  the  dogs  so  fast  that  we  cannot  count  them,  and  so  many  appal- 
ling things  are  happening  in  our  own  state  and  other  states,  let  us  see,  what 
can  we  do? 

Work  on  Middle  Lines 

"  It  will  take  time,  because  as  humanity  has  been  going  on  the  downward  path 
so  long,  we  cannot  get  back  to  the  old  position  of  soul-life  in  a  day.  So  we  must 
be  wise  and  work  on  middle  lines,  on  lines  of  least  resistance,  endeavor  to  do 
the  best  we  can,  according  to  our  opportunities;  but  we  must  grasp  every  op- 
portunity, and  we  must  have  the  courage  born  of  the  Gods,  to  work  out  our 
opportunities  in  the  direction  of  true  reform. 

To  Arouse  the  World 

"  So  in  my  opinion  the  first  thing  is  to  arouse  the  whole  world,  this  great 
family  of  humans  that  we  are  associated  with,  with  the  idea  that  it  is  savagery 
for  us  to  support  capital  punishment ;  we  must  take  a  stand  and  make  the  first 
step,  remove  the  first  stone,  so  to  speak,  and  arise  in  our  righteous  wrath  and 
in  the  dignity  of  our  manhood  and  womanhood  and  declare:  No  capital  punish- 
ment in  the  state  of  California !  Let  us  not  take  up  the  question  of  other  states 
tonight,  because  we  cannot  make  the  world  over  in  a  minute,  but  what  a  glorious 
thing  it  would  be  if  California,  under  the  pressure  of  just  our  efforts  here  —  this 
united  body  of  people  —  would  abolish  capital  punishment ;  if  we  could  arise  to 
that  point  of  discernment  of  knowing  what  is  our  duty  at  this  moment,  not  to- 
morrow —  not  to  think  it  out  or  work  it  out  by  the  brain  mind  —  but  let  us  find 
our  consciences  now ! 

"  Let  us  get  right  down  to  that  point,  and  stop  and  think  a  moment !  Think 
just  how  we  should  feel  if  our  children  were  in  prison  today,  or  if  our  children 
were  to  be  executed !  This  is  the  way  to  get  home  to  the  truth !  This  is  the  way 
to  arouse  the  hearts  of  men ;  to  bring  the  sorrows  of  others  into  our  lives,  feel 
them,  understand  them. 

Capital  Punishment  Is  Savagery 

"  When  that  power  comes,  that  knowledge,  that  love,  that  compassion,  that 
the  Nazarene  and  others  taught  ages  ago  —  when  that  comes  —  well,  there  will 
be  no  questioning.  Your  minds  would  repudiate  the  necessity  of  discussing  the 
question.     You  would  declare  that  it  is  savagery,  that  it  is  brutality,  that  it  is 


TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT  7 

a  great  disgrace  to  the  human  race  today  —  that  any  man  or  woman  would  sup- 
port such  unjust  measures.  It  is  your  duty ;  it  is  the  duty  of  all  humans  to  come 
closer  to  the  realization  of  what  human  responsibility  is. 

"  I  have  said  it  over  and  over  again,  and  these  words  are  always  singing  in 
my  heart  like  a  beautiful  mantra:  '  I  am  my  brother's  keeper.  I  am  my  brother's 
keeper,'  and  surely  if  we  are  our  brothers'  keepers,  then  we  can  very  quickly 
see  how  we  have  failed  and  how  our  dear  ancestors  have  failed  in  doing  justice 
to  humanity,  and  particularly  in  doing  justice  to  those  who  are  condemned  to  be 
hanged  or  electrocuted. 

"  I  could  conceive,  and  I  always  try  to  control  my  imagination  when  I  am 
meeting  a  mixed  audience,  but  I  could  conceive  the  psychological  influence  of  a 
body  like  this,  agreeing  with  me  that  capital  punishment  was  wrong  —  it  would 
affect  others,  and  before  long  we  should  take  another  step  in  helping  to  change 
unjust  laws. 

A  New  Picture 

"  It  would  be  our  heart  work,  the  voices  of  our  souls  speaking,  we  might 
think  ahead  ten  years  or  fifteen  and  see  the  picture  of  some  of  our  hills  and  our 
valleys  presenting  a  new  feature  in  the  twentieth  century  civilization.  A  some- 
thing so  splendidly  remedial  —  and  that  is,  that  we  should  have  our  hospitals  for 
the  weaklings,  for  the  more  unfortunate,  whose  unbridled  passions  have  carried 
them  so  far  beyond  the  pale  of  society  —  we  should  have  institutions  of  reform- 
ation with  the  name  unprinted  —  hospitals  with  the  name  unprinted  —  unlabeled. 

"  There  would  be  the  gardens  and  the  fields.  There  would  be  the  houses  and 
the  homes.  Do  you  know  that  I  dare  conceive  and  have  written  it  all  out,  that 
those  prisoners  should  not  be  separated  from  their  families !  That  they  should 
be  placed  in  these  Institutions  of  Brotherhood  that  I  speak  of,  and  cared  for  in 
such  a  way  that  they  would  understand  quite  well  that  they  were  under  a  certain 
amount  of  restraint,  but  no  more,  perhaps  —  if  we  are  very  thoughtful  —  than 
that  we  give  to  invalids.  They  would  feel  that  they  were  in  a  hospital,  in  a  school, 
with  everything  so  helpful  that  there  would  be  no  inducement  to  rebel. 

"  If  we  can  now  send  out  from  the  prisons  on  parole  a  certain  number  of 
men,  put  them  on  their  honor,  send  them  out  with  only  five  dollars,  some  of  them 
with  no  understanding,  with  no  friends  —  if  we  can  send  these  out  on  parole  and 
trust  them  to  society,  surely  we  can  take  our  unfortunates  and  give  them  the 
advantages  of  reformation  in  the  helpful  environments  I  have  described  to  you. 
They  would  be  self-supporting,  and  in  the  end  there  would  be  less  cost  to  the 
state  —  and  less  crime. 

Human  Possibilities 

"And  I  know  that  in  such  environments  it  would  be  possible  that  most  of  these 
unfortunates,  through  the  sufiFering  that  they  had  endured  that  you  know  nothing 
about,  would  arouse  the  strength  of  their  higher  natures  and  become  in  the  course 
of  time  valuable  citizens,  and  some  ultimately  law-makers,  teachers,  and  reformers. 
How  dare  we  stultify  the  possibilities  of  the  soul  of  man?  Can  we  not  let  our 
imagination  soar  so  far  into  this  broad  arena  of  spiritual  life  and  picture  the 
future  ? 


8  TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT 

"Is  my  picture  so  far-fetched  ?  If  you  can  take  men  and  let  them  out  on  parole 
now,  with  everything  to  contend  with,  striving  for  the  dollar  and  their  bread  and 
butter,  with  no  end  of  difficulties,  everything  to  discourage  them  —  if  you  can  do 
this  now,  surely  you  could  support  a  scheme  of  brotherhood  reformatories,  leaving 
out  all  creeds,  making  them  a  universal  expression  of  the  hearts  of  the  people, 
held  down  by  no  special  system,  except  that  of  the  laws  of  the  state;  but  those 
laws  would  have  been  made  by  you,  and  so  you  would  have  become  a  part  of  them. 

No  More  Capitai,  Punishment 

"  I  can  feel  your  hearts  pulsating  with  the  thought  of  this  picture.  There  are 
only  a  few  here  who  are  so  held  in  and  limited  and  prejudiced,  who  cannot  break 
the  bars  and  look  out,  who  will  ever  advocate  capital  punishment  after  this. 
You  can't  do  it.  My  hez^i't,  the  persuasion  of  my  heart  and  my  voice,  my  love 
for  humanity  and  my  hopes  for  the  unfortunate,  certainly  will  be  enough  to  move 
you  to  concerted  action;  and  concerted  action,  when  hearts  are  united,  is  like  one 
great  throbbing  ocean  of  spiritual  force. 

"  When  hearts  and  minds  are  united,  then  the  soul  speaks,  and  then  my  prayer, 
my  earnest  prayer,  is  that  ye  men  and  women  of  San  Diego  will  arise  to  the 
occasion  and  that  you  will  find  yourselves  in  a  new  way,  that  you  will  study  your 
duties  in  a  new  way,  that  you  will  realize  your  responsibilities  in  a  new  way, 
that  you  may  feel  the  touch  of  that  divine  life,  the  divine  law,  that  you  may  feel 
so  truly,  so  splendidly,  so  fully,  so  generously,  so  divinely,  that  you  will  declare 
that  California  must  take  the  lead.  California  can  no  longer  support  capital 
punishment." 

Resolutions  Accepted 

At  the  close  of  Madame  Tingley's  address  the  following  resolutions  were  read, 
and  were  received  with  hearty  applause.  Katherine  Tingley  then  said : 

"  I  wish  to  thank  all  present  for  their  splendid  attention,  and  the  spirit  of  sym- 
pathy which  I  have  felt  in  your  presence  tonight.  But  I  cannot  let  you  go  until 
I  have  made  just  one  more  plea.  May  I  not  ask  you  that  there  shall  be  a  standing 
vote  in  support  of  these  resolutions,  that  Capital  Punishment  may  be  eliminated 
from  the  statutes  of  the  State  of  California?  " 

In  response,  the  whole  audience,  with  the  exception  of  but  half  a  dozen  out  of 
the  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  present,  arose  and  gave  their  enthusiastic  assent  with 
loud  applause.  While  the  audience  were  still  on  their  feet,  Katherine  Tingley  said : 
"  It  is  the  desire  of  the  Raja- Yoga  students  who  come  here  almost  every  week  to 
entertain  and  to  help  you,  that  you  join  with  them  in  singing  that  beautiful  hymn, 
Lead  Kindly  Light."  To  this  request  the  audience  enthusiastically  responded,  and 
at  the  conclusion,  the  Raja- Yoga  International  Chorus  sang,  There  is  Music  by 
the  River. 


TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT  9 

HELENA     PETROVNA    BLAVATSKY    CLUB 
RAJA-YOGA    ACADEMY,     POINT    LOMA,    CALIFORNIA 

"  Judge  Not,  That  Ye  Be  Not  Judged." 

The  members  of  the  Helena  Petrovna  Blavatsky  Club,  a  representative  body 
of  the  students  of  the  Raja-Yoga  Academy,  a  department  of  the  School  of  Anti- 
quity, of  which  Katherine  Tingley  is  Foundress-Directress,  on  hearing  of  the  death 
sentences  of  J.  Allen,  Ralph  Fariss,  and  others,  to  be  executed  during  this  month  of 
April,  1914,  have  unanimously  adopted  the  following  resolutions,  to  protest  against 
this  infringement  of  the  Divine  Laws  of  Justice  and  Mercy. 

Whereas:  The  Raja-Yoga  School  was  established  to  educate  the  youth  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  spiritual  laws  of  life,  and  one  of  the  essential  teachings 
of  Raja-Yoga  is  the  duality  of  human  nature,  and  the  continual  warfare 
between  the  Lower  and  the  Higher  Self;    and 

Whereas:  This  knowledge  has  been  lost  to  the  world,  and  these  men  were  not 
taught  to  rule  the  Lower  by  the  Higher  Self,  and  therefore  cannot  be  con- 
demned for  their  mistakes;   and 

Whereas  :  We  are  our  Brothers'  Keepers,  and  are  responsible  for  their  welfare, 
and  the  death  penalty  destroys  all  chance  in  this  life  of  a  man's  squaring  him- 
self with  the  world ;  and  crime  has  not  been  lessened  by  capital  punish- 
ment; and  the  death  penalty  creates  misery  and  poverty  in  many  homes; 
and 

Whereas:  The  psychological  effect  of  the  fear  of  death  adds  to  the  despair 
which  may  lead  others  to  crime;  and  such  a  death  liberates  evil  influences 
beyond  human  power  to  control,  which  could  be  held  in  check  if  the  man 
were  given  another  chance;    and 

Whereas:  Capital  Punishment  makes  Death  a  horrible  nightmare  instead  of 
the  entrance  into  the  Larger  Life,  as  it  is  under  the  workings  of  the  Higher 
Law ;    and 

Whereas:  Life  is  heaven-given,  and  man  cannot  give  it,  and  so  has  no  right 
to  take  it  away:   Therefore  be  it 

Resoeved  :  That  not  only  should  the  present  sentences  be  removed,  but  the  death 
penalty  should  be  forever  blotted  from  the  records  of  our  civilization. 

Resolved:  That  in  order  to  accomplish  this,  we  appeal  to  the  Divine  in  Man 
to  arouse  itself  in  protest  against  this  inhuman  act 

Resolved  :  That  to  follow  Christ's  teaching,  "  Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself," 
it  is  our  duty  to  help  these  men,  not  put  them  beyond  the  reach  of  help. 

Resolved  :  That  we  appeal  to  His  Excellency  Governor  Johnson  to  commute  the 
death  sentences  of  J.  Allen,  Ralph  Fariss,  and  the  other  condemned  men,  in 


10  TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT 

accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  Higher  Law,  and  thus  be  a  helper  in 
the  work  of  placing  California  in  the  ranks  of  our  most  enlightened  States. 

In  behalf  of  all  the  members  of  the  Helena  Petrovna  Blavatsky  Club,  founded 
July  1913,  among  whom  are  represented  six  nations. 

Karin  Hedlund 
Approved:   Kj\the;rine  TinglEy  President 

Foundress-Directress  Margaret  Hanson 

Secretary 
Raja-Yoga  Academy,  Point  Loma,  California,  April  2,  1914. 


WILLIAM    QUAN    JUDGE    CLUB 

RAJA-YOGA    COLLEGE,     POINT    LOMA,    CALIFORNIA 

"  Fortune's  Favored  Soldiers,  Loyal  and  Alert." 
Primary  Objects: 

1.  To  form  a  nucleus  of  dependable  Raja-Yoga  workers  for  Brotherhood,  under 
the  guidance  of  our  Teacher,  Katherine  Tingley. 

2.  To  aid  in  raising  the  standard  of  our  Raja-Yoga  College,  by  the  example  of 
our  daily  life. 

3.  To  put  into  practice  at  all  times,  the  highest  id'eals  of  manhood,  and  the 
teachings  of  Raj  a- Yoga. 

Secondary  Objects: 

1.  To  acquire  a  greater  knowledge  of,  and  facility  in,  public  speaking. 

2.  To  gain  a  more  thorough  mastery  of  the  English  language. 

3.  To  study  and  practice  Parliamentary  Law. 

"  Thou  Shalt  Not  Kill." 

To  His  Exceli^Ency,  Governor  Hiram  Johnson, 
State  House,  Sacramento,  California. 

Honorable  Sir: 

The  William  Quan  Judge  Club  was  organized  in  June,  1906,  by  the  students 
of  the  Boys'  Department  of  the  Raja-Yoga  College,  Point  Eoma,  California,  which 
college  is  a  Department  of  the  School  of  Antiquity  (Incorporated),  and  of  which 
college  Katherine  Tingley  is  the  Foundress-Directress.  This  Club  is  the  central 
one  of  many  Boys'  Brotherhood  Clubs  that  have  been  established  by  Katherine 
Tingley  throughout  the  world  since  1898. 


TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT  11 

At  a  special  meeting  of  this  Club,  held  on  this,  the  Second  Day  of  April,  1914, 
the  following  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted: 

Whereas:  J.  Allen,  Ralph  Fariss,  and  others,  have  been  legally  condemned  to 
be  hanged  during  this  month  of  April,  1914,  and  they  are,  in  the  sense  that 
we  are  all  essentially  divine,  our  brothers ;  and  moreover,  they  have  probably 
been  deprived  of  the  opportunities  that  ive  have  had  of  learning  the  invalu- 
able lessons  of  self-control;  and  had  we  not  been  afforded  such  opportunities, 
we  do  not  know  to  what  temptations  we  ourselves  might  have  succumbed ;  and 

Whereas:  It  is  the  aim  of  the  members  of  this  Club  honorably  to  meet  life's 
responsibilities,  and  thus  prepare  themselves  to  better  serve  humanity;  and 
we  believe  in  putting  into  practice  the  Golden  Rule :  "  Do  unto  others  as  ye 
would  that  they  should  do  unto  you  " ;  and  in  our  opinion,  every  man  worthy 
of  the  name,  must  instinctively  throttle  the  voice  of  conscience  and  human- 
ity, in  order  to  permit  a  fellow-being  to  be  hanged  or  otherwise  executed; 
and 

Whereas  :  The  William  Ouan  Judge  Club  has  been  given  the  opportunity  of 
co-operating  with  Katherine  Tingley  in  her  efforts  to  abolish  Capital  Punish- 
ment in  general,  and  in  her  protest  against  the  execution  of  these  men  in  par- 
ticular; and  has  also  been  given  the  opportunity  of  co-operating  with  the 
Men's  International  Theosophical  League  of  Humanity,  in  the  Resolutions 
unanimously  adopted  by  that  Body  on  March  31,  1914:     Therefore  be  it 

Resolved:  That  the  William  Quan  Judge  Club  appeal  to  His  Excellency, 
Governor  Hiram  Johnson,  to  commute  the  sentence  of  our  condemned 
brothers,  and  thereby  give  them  another  chance  to  learn  their  lessons  from 
their  serious  mistakes,  and  thus  possibly  become  in  time  worthy  citizens; 
and  that  in  no  sense  do  we  presume  to  ask  that  our  condemned  brothers 
be  set  free;  but  that  we  repeat  the  words  of  our  Teacher,  Katherine  Ting- 
ley  :  "  They  should  have  another  chance  in  the  most  humane  environments." 

Resolved:  That  His  Excellency,  Governor  Johnson,  be  reminded  that  we  are 
to  make  the  future  citizens  of  this  State;  and  that  we  —  and  we  feel  all 
the  people  of  our  State,  who  have  the  true  Christian  Spirit  —  will  ever 
cherish  his  memory  for  any  act  of  clemency  he  may  show  to  erring  fellow- 
beings. 

Resolved:  That  the  following  words  from  Shakespeare  fittingly  express  our 
own  sentiments : 

The  quality  of  mercy  is  not  strain' d; 
It  droppeth  as  the  gentle  rain  from  heaven 
Upon  the  place  beneath;   it  is  twice  blest; 
It  blesseth  him  that  gives  and  him  that  takes: 
'Tis  mightiest  in  the  mightiest:   it  becomes 
The  throned  monarch  better  than  his  crown; 
His  scepter  shows  the  force  of  temporal  power, 
The  attribute  to  azve  and  majesty, 


12  TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT 

Wherein  doth  sit  the  dread  and  fear  of  kings; 

But  mercy  is  above  this  sceptered  sway; 

It  is  enthroned  in  the  hearts  of  kings; 

It  is  an  attribute  to  God  himself ; 

And  earthly  power  doth  then  show  likest  God's 

When  mercy  seasons  justice. — Th^  Merchant  oF  Venice,  iv.  1- 

In  behalf  of  all  the  members  of  the  William  Quan  Judge  Club,  among  whom 
are  represented  nine  different  nations. 

Hubert  Dunn 

Censor 
Approved:  Katherine  Tingley  Montague  A.  Machell 

Foundress-Directress  President 

IvERSON  L.  Harris,  Jr. 

Secretary 
Raja- Yoga  College,  Point  Loma,  California,  April  2,  1914. 


TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT  13 


AN    APPEAL 

To  His  Exce;lle:ncy,  the  Governor, 
Sacramento,  California. 

Dear  Sir : 

The  members  of  the  Woman's  International  Theosophical  League  (unsecta- 
rian,  humanitarian)  of  Point  Loma,  California,  associated  with  other  Leagues 
throughout  the  world  under  the  Leadership  of  Madame  Katherine  Tingley,  their 
Foundress-Directress,  and  organized  to  protect  the  homes  and  to  safeguard  the 
interests  of  civic  and  national  life  and  harmonious  international  relations,  at  a 
meeting  of  the  Council  of  said  League  on  this  date,  March  31,  1914,  do  hereby 
adopt  the  following  resolutions : 

Whereas  :  We  learn  that  the  fate  of  J.  Allen  and  Ralph  Fariss  and  others  now 
in  San  Quentin  penitentiary  legally  condemned  to  death,  is  in  your  hands  and 
their  cry  for  mercy  is  in  your  heart;  and  know  that  the  influence  of  your 
decision  is  a  responsibility  that  will  react  upon  many  lives  and  that  it  will 
be  far-reaching  and  potent  in  its  effects  for  good  or  ill;    and 

Whereas  :  We  hold  that,  in  view  of  the  tie  of  human  brotherhood  as  a  fact  in 
Nature,  we,  as  intrinsic  parts  of  the  body  politic,  enjoying  its  rights,  also 
share  in  the  responsibility  of  its  wrongs ;  and  that,  in  the  eyes  of  the  Higher 
Law,  we  also  share  in  the  guilt  of  evil-doers  who  may  be  more  blindly  led 
and  more  sorely  tempted  than  we  ourselves,  through  the  influence  of  environ- 
ing conditions  for  which  we  hold  that  we  are,  in  part,  responsible;    and 

Whereas  :  We  believe  that  nothing  which  is  morally  wrong  should  be  considered 
legally  right;  that  the  common  law  should  be  an  instrument  not  of  rff'struc- 
tion  but  of  instruction  and  that  its  mission  should  be  not  to  destroy  but  to 
fulfil ;  that  no  beneficent  purpose  can  be  served,  either  for  the  men  now  con- 
demned or  for  others  in  like  case  or  for  Society,  by  thus  cutting  short  the 
lives  of  these  unfortunate  men  and  removing  them  by  force  from  the  School 
in  which  Nature  has  placed  them,  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  in  so  doing  we 
miserably  shirk  a  sacred  responsibility  and  cruelly  deprive  them  of  whatever 
opportunities  for  improvement  this  life  might  otherwise  have  to  offer ;    and 

"Whereas  :  We  hold  that  all  men  have  the  God-given  right  to  correct  their  mis- 
takes and  do  what  they  can  to  restore  the  harmony  their  acts  have  violated, 
no  less  than  the  harmony  within  their  own  natures;  that  this,  in  short,  is 
the  Divine  End  towards  which  all  are  struggling,  and  that  the  greater  the 
sin  the  greater  the  need  for  help  and  opportunity  for  readjustment;    and 

Whereas  :  We  believe  that  in  every  man,  even  in  those  who  temporarily  lose  all 
control  of  their  passions,  there  resides  an  inner  Divine  Power  which,  if  ap- 
pealed to  in  the  spirit  of  true  brotherliness  and  strengthened  by  discipline 
and  co-operation,  enables  even  those  who  have  failed  many  times  to  conquer 
the  evil  impulses  which  impelled  them,  and  transmute  the  evil  into  good ;  and 


14  TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT" 

Whereas:  It  is  our  conviction  and  belief  that  if  he  who  has  done  the  evil  deed 
does  not  himself  atone  by  transmuting  the  evil  in  his  nature  into  good,  these 
wicked  impulses  live  on  after  the  man's  body  is  dead  and  constitute  a  menace 
to  weak  and  innocent  persons,  poisoning  the  atmosphere  of  thought  and 
feeling  in  which  we  all  live  and  breeding  crime  by  their  unseen  influence  — 
thus  accounting  for  many  of  those  sporadic  outbursts  of  crime  which  are  as 
yet  neither  controlled  nor  understood ;  and  that  a  living  man,  guarded  with- 
in prison  walls,  is  better  than  a  disembodied  evil  passion  seeking  a  victim  to 
satisfy  its  desires;    and 

Whereas:  As  law-abiding  citizens,  we  believe  in  restraint  and  correction  for 
wrong-doers,  but  believe  that  our  beloved  commonwealth  of  California  is 
powerful  enough  to  impose  the  necessary  restraint  upon  those  who  are  dan- 
gerous to  Society;  and  that  fearless  mercy  will  lead  to  an  intuitive  under- 
standing of  even  the  criminal's  nature,  to  the  end  of  true  reform,  while 
his  death  warrant  must  ever  bear,  when  challenged,  the  stamp  of  social  ig- 
norance and  weakness;    and 

Whereas:  It  has  been  our  good  fortune  to  assist  Katherine  Tingley  for  many 
years  in  her  efforts  to  reform  and  to  uplift  the  discouraged  and  the  fallen, 
in  and  out  of  prisons  and  among  both  men  and  women ;    and 

Whereas:  We  have  observed  the  effect  of  her  teachings  of  Man's  essential 
Divinity  and  the  Brotherhood  of  Mankind  upon  erring  men  and  women  — 
in  particular  upon  the  unfortunates  in  our  prisons  —  and  have  seen  many 
a  hardened  criminal  reformed  through  the  knowledge  that  there  were  those 
who  believed  in  his  Divine  power  to  redeem  himself  and  who,  while  not 
condoning  his  guilt,  still  looked  upon  him  as  a  brother;    therefore,  be  it 

Resolved  :  That,  whatever  the  guilt  of  these  condemned  men  may  be,  or  of  othei 
condemned  men  in  other  States  or  nations,  they  are  human,  like  ourselves, 
and  are  our  brothers,  with  like  need  of  merciful  judgment;  that  shameful 
death  will  not  undo  their  crime  while  it  will  act  to  prevent  them  from 
learning  needed  lessons  in  Life's  great  School  of  Experience;  that  their 
execution  serves  no  purpose  of  reform  in  their  embittered  fellow-prisoners 
or  in  the  ranks  of  hardened  criminals  at  large,  while  the  shadow  of  the  scaf- 
fold that  ever  darkens  the  saddened  lives  of  a  wide  circle  of  innocent  ties 
would,  in  some  measure,  surely  fall  with  deepened  horror  upon  us  all, 
since  no  man  can  sin  or  suffer  the  effects  of  sin  alone;  that  the  signs  of 
the  times  point  to  an  awakening  of  the  public  conscience  regarding  the  un- 
realized horror  of  Capital  Punishment,  and  that  it  were  well  for  the  fair 
name  of  sunny  California  that  it  early  abolish  the  outgrown  barbarity 
which  our  children  will  be  embarrassed  to  explain;    and,  be  it  also 

Resolved:  That,  in  the  name  of  thousands  of  humanitarian  women  throughout 
the  world,  who  are  united  in  seeking  to  understand  better  their  own  respon- 
sibilities to  their  homes  and  to  the  world,  we  earnestly  entreat  you  to  use 
the  power  of  your  honorable  position  in  staying  the  executioner's  hand  in 
the  case  of  these  condemned  men,  that  you  may  give  to  human  brothers  what 


TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT  15 

is  yours  alone  to  give ;  that  you  may  make  your  act  a  signal  response  to  the 
cry  for  another  chance  that  pleads  in  every  human  heart; 

That,  as  Women,  many  of  us  mothers  of  sons,  we  plead  for  the  con- 
demned; as  workers  for  humanity,  we  plead  for  the  good  name  and  the 
protection  of  Society;  that,  as  members  of  God's  great  family,  we  plead 
for  all  those  who,  in  spite  of  their  mistakes,  are  still  our  Brothers ;  and 
that,  in  addition,  we  declare  it  our  conviction  that  Your  Excellency,  as  the 
First  Citizen  of  our  fair  State,  by  resolute  courage  in  stepping  out  in  de- 
fense of  the  Higher  Law  of  Compassion,  would  invoke  its  protection  in 
a  new  and  Divine  expression  that  would  benefit  all  the  world. 

In  behalf  of  the  members  of  the  Woman's  International  Theosophical  League, 
(unsectarian,  humanitarian)  among  whom  are  represented  twenty-five  different 
nations. 

(Mrs.)  Euzabeth  C.  Spalding 
Kathe;rine  TinglSy  President 

Foundress-Directress  (Mrs.)  Este;li.e;  C.  Hanson 

Secretary 

Dated  March  31,  1914,  at  the  Headquarters  of  the  Women's  International  Theosophical 
League  (unsectarian,  humanitarian),  Point  Loma,  California. 


16  TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT 

A     PROTEST    AGAINST    CAPITAL     PUNISHMENT 

AND 
AN    APPEAL     FOR    ITS    ABOLISHMENT 

The  quality  of  mercy  is  not  strain' d; 
It  droppeth  as  the  gentle  rain  from  heaven 
Upon  the  place  beneath;   it  is  tzvice  blest; 
It  blesseth  him  that  gives  and  him  that  takes. 

The  Merchant  oe  Venice,  iv.  1. 

Every  man  who  errs,  no  matter  how  seriously  he  errs,  deserves  another  chance. 

Katherine  TiNGIvEY 

The  Men's  International  Theosophical  League  of  Humanity  is  a  world-wide 
body,  unsectarian  and  non-political,  established  in  New  York  in  1897  by  Katherine 
Tingley,  Leader  and  Official  Head  of  the  Universal  Brotherhood  and  Theosophical 
Society  throughout  the  world,  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  and  uplifting  Humanity 
along  practical  lines ;  in  which  work  it  has  been  actively  engaged  since  its  founda- 
tion. 

Among  its  objects  are  the  following: 

"  To  abolish  Capital  Punishment." 

"  To  assist  those  who  are  or  have  been  in  prison  to  establish  themselves  in 
honorable  positions  in  life." 

In  pursuance  of  these  objects  and  to  make  an  appeal  to  the  public  of  Cali- 
fornia and  of  other  States  of  America  which  still  retain  the  death  penalty  among 
their  statutes,  and  to  the  enlightened  public  throughout  the  world;  and  in  par- 
ticular to  appeal  to  the  Governor  of  the  State  of  California  mercifully  to  exercise 
his  power  of  clemency  and  to  commute  the  death  sentences  in  all  cases  that  may 
come  before  him,  a  special  meeting  of  the  Men's  International  Theosophical 
League  of  Humanity  was  held  at  its  headquarters  at  Point  Loma,  California, 
this  day,  March  31st,  1914,  at  which  the  following  resolutions  were  unanimously 
adopted : 

Whereas  :  Among  the  enlightened  and  seriously  thinking  people  of  all  civilized 
countries  there  is  a  growing  recognition  of  human  solidarity  and  the  Bro- 
therhood and  mutual  interdependence  of  all  men,  and  a  recognition  that 
Society  as  a  whole  is  responsible  for  the  conditions  that  result  in  crime ; 
and  further,  that  being  responsible  it  is  the  duty  of  Society  and  the  State 
to  reform  and  not  merely  to  punish  the  criminal  —  which  responsibility  is 
virtually  denied  by  the  execution  of  the  death  sentence;    and 

Whereas:  Society  as  a  whole,  represented  by  the  State,  has  an  equal  responsi- 
bility with  the  individual  to  display  those  attributes  which  distinguish  man 
..  from  the  brute,  and  to  follow  the  highest  dictates  of  virtue  and  of  human- 
ity as  well  as  those  of  divine  law ;  and  hence  the  divine  command,  re-echoed 
by  Jesus,  "  Thou  shalt  not  kill,"  applies  to  and  is  equally  binding  on  the 
State  as  on  the  individual,  the  State  being  equally  bound  with  the  indi- 
vidual to  respect  the  laws  of  the  State,  and  not  to  commit  an  offense  against 
any  of  its  laws,  such  as  the  taking  of  life;    and 


TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT  17 

Whereas:  In  retaining  the  death  penalty  among  its  statutes  the  State  virtually 
arrogates  to  itself  supreme  right  which  belongs  to  Deity  alone;  viz.,  the 
taking  of  life,  man's  sacred  possession  and  inalienable  right;    and 

Whereas:  There  is  a  growing  distrust  of  the  efficacy,  humanity  and  common- 
sense  of  Capital  Punishment,  and  a  growing  revolt  of  thinking  people  against 
this  method  of  dealing  with  the  heinous  offense  of  murder  by  repeating 
it  judicially,  in  cold  blood;    and 

Whereas  :  By  executing  the  sentence  of  Capital  Punishment  the  State  commits  an 
act  which,  committed  by  an  individual,  it  condemns,  which  act  is  irrevocable 
and  in  many  instances  has  been  inflicted  upon  persons  who  have  afterwards 
been  found  innocent,  in  which  instances  the  State  stands  convicted  of  crime, 
not  merely  of  blunder  ;   and 

Whereas:  The  protection  of  Society  can  be  assured  and  safeguarded  by  the 
proper  restraint  —  by  incarceration  —  of  the  criminal,  permitting  the  exer- 
cise of  humane,  remedial  and  educative  measures  for  his  reform  and  possible 
restoration  as  a  useful  and  honorable  member  of  Society;  Now,  therefore, 
be  it 

Resolved  :  That,  and  we  do  hereby  most  earnestly  protest  against  the  infliction 
of  the  death  penalty,  and  make  this  appeal  for  the  Abolishment  of  Capital 
Punishment,  which  violates  the  sacredness  of  human  life ; 

RESOEvEd:  That  we  appeal  to  and  call  upon  every  enlightened  citizen  of  the  State 
of  California,  of  the  United  States  of  America,  and  of  the  whole  world,  to 
unite  in  a  solemn  protest  against  the  enforcement  of  Capital  Punishment; 
and  to  abolish  from  the  statutes  of  all  States  and  Countries  the  death  penalty ; 

Resolved:  That  we  call  upon  the  humanity  of  the  Twentieth  Century  to  arise 
and  proclaim  itself  in  recognition  of  the  duty  and  obligation  of  man  to  man, 
and  brother  to  brother ; 

Resolved:  That  we  call  upon  the  people  of  the  State  of  CaHfomia  to  support 
this  appeal  to  His  Excellency,  the  Governor  of  California,  to  mercifully  exer- 
cise his  prerogative  of  clemency  and  commute  the  death  sentences  of  those 
men  in  San  Quentin  penitentiary  now  awaiting  execution; 

Resolved  :  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  sent  to  the  Governor  of  the  State 
of  California  and  other  officials,  and  that  the  same  be  printed  and  sent  to 
the  Governors  of  every  State  of  the  United  States  of  America,  and  to  the 
Heads  of  Governments  and  their  Ministers  throughout  the  world,  and  be 
published  broadcast  among  the  peoples  of  the  earth. 

On  behalf  of  all  the  members  throughout  the  world  of  the  Men's  International 
Theosophical  League  of  Humanity,  among  whom  are  representatives  of  twenty- 
five  nations,  resident  at  the  International  Headquarters  at  Point  Loma, 

C.  Thurston 
KathERINE  TinglEy  President 

Foundress-Directress  Fred  J.  Dick 

Secretary 

Dated   March   31,    1914,   at   the   Headquarters   of  the   Men's    International    Theosophical 
League  of  Humanity    (unsectarian  and  non-political),   Point   Loma,   California. 


18  TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT 

AGAINST    CAPITAL     PUNISHMENT 

A  Summary  of  Argume;nts  presented  at  a  Meeting  of 

The  Men's  International  Theosophical,  League  of  Humanity 

March  31,  1914,  at  which  the  Resolutions  above  given  were  drafted 

AND  unanimously  PASSED 

Capital  Punishment  is  a  barbarous  survival  from  a  less  enlightened  and 
refined  age;  it  is  incongruous  and  incompatible  with  our  present  standard  of 
civilization  and  humanity.  It  has  been  abolished  by  many  states  and  countries, 
and  we  must  look  forward  to  the  day  when  the  other  governments  will  follow  suit. 

The  arguments  against  capital  punishment  are  many  and  cogent,  but  the  pleas 
advanced  in  its  favor  are  few  and  specious. 

Punishment  is  supposed  to  be  for  the  protection  of  society,  and  for  the  reform- 
ation of  the  wrongdoer.  It  purports  to  protect  society  by  preventing  the  same 
criminals  from  repeating  their  crimes,  and  by  acting  as  a  deterrent  to  other  pros- 
pective criminals.  Capital  punishment  is  a  notorious  failure  in  these  respects. 
It  does  indeed  remove  the  particular  culprit  from  the  possibility  of  repeating  his 
crime ;  but  this  is  of  very  small  account  in  view  of  the  fact  that  murder  is  seldom 
if  ever  a  career  of  repeated  acts,  but  consists  of  single  acts  perpetrated  by  differ- 
ent individuals.  The  man  whom  we  remove  from  the  scene,  therefore,  is  not  the 
man  who-,-4f--&u.flered  to  live^_wouLd4"iav£-Jbeen  likely_  to  endangerour^  safety 


As  a  deterrent  to  other  murderers,  likewise,  the  death-penalty  has  proved  a 
signal  failure,  as  may  be  seen  by  comparing  the  criminal  statistics  of  those  coun- 
tries where  the  punishment  is  in  force  with  those  of  countries  where  it  has  been 
abolished.  Nor  is  the  reason  of  this  failure  far  to  seek.  Murders  are  nearly  always 
committed  in  sudden  fits  of  passion  or  temporary  insanity,  when  no  consideration 
of  reason  or  self-interest  can  appeal  to  the  doer.  Further,  such  uncertainty  attends 
the  consummation  of  the  death-sentence — due  to  the  natural  hesitation  and  in- 
clination to  mercy  of  judge  and  jury,  to  the  chances  of  reprieve  and  commutation 
—  that  this  penalty  is  far  less  deterrent  than  are  those  penalties  which,  though 
less  severe,  are  also  more  certain.  Finally,  under  this  head,  it  remains  to  be  said 
that  even  though  we  should  allow  that  the  death-penalty  is  deterrent,  we  have  not 
answered  the  question  whether  there  are  not  other  and  more  effectual  deterrents ; 
and,  as  will  appear  later,  there  are  such  deterrents,  in  comparison  with  which 
capital  punishment  is  seen  to  be  clumsy  and  ineffectual  in  the  extreme. 

As  to  the  reformative  character  of  punishment  —  the  character  in  which  the 
present  age  chiefly  regards  it  —  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  point  out  that  capital 
punishment  effectually  removes  all  possibility  of  this  by  cutting  short  the  life  of 
the  wrongdoer  and  thus  taking  away  both  his  chance  of  reform  and  our  golden 
opportunity  of  discharging  the  duty  of  reforming  him. 

Capital  punishment  is  irrevocable,  and  the  errors  of  justice  cannot  be  rectified. 
All  possibility  of  reconsideration  is  taken  away.  Innocent  persons  have  been 
hanged,  and  judge,  jury,  and  the  whole  legal  machinery  involved,  have  thereby 
been  made  privy  to  the  very  crime  they  sought  to  punish.  In  view  of  the  very 
uncertain  and  unequal  character  of  our  merely  human  endeavors  to  mete  out  jus- 
tice, no  proceedings  of  ours  should  be  of  this  irrevocable  character.     So  complex 


TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT  19 

and  uncertain  is  the  process  of  sifting  whereby  finally  a  few  individuals  are  sorted 
out  from  the  mass  and  consigned  to  punishment,  that  the  selection  seems  largely 
arbitrary,  and  we  find  that  the  actual  convicts  are  no  worse,  and  some  perhaps  even 
better,  than  many  whom  the  hand  of  the  law  never  reaches.  What  principle  of 
equity  or  reason  can  justify  us  in  singling  out  for  our  harshest  treatment,  by  so 
hap-hazard  a  method,  a  few  individuals  who  for  the  most  part  manifest  no  par- 
ticular reasons  why  they,  and  they  alone,  should  be  so  treated? 

Capital  punishment  sins  most  by  depriving  the  culprit  of  his  chances  of  reform- 
ation. As  a  weaker  brother,  who  has  fallen  into  ways  of  woe  through  causes  that 
are  inherent  in  our  social  structure,  and  for  which  we  are  all  more  or  less  respon- 
sible, he  should  claim  our  care  and  protection.  Our  duty  to  society  is  fulfilled 
by  isolating  the  dangerous  man  for  so  long  as  he  may  continue  to  be  dangerous. 
As  for  deterrent  action,  this  should  be  compassed,  not  by  fear,  but  by  reformative 

.'-^    and  protective  measures  in  our  social  policy.    The  only  way  to  destroy  a  criminal 
!       is  by  reforming  the  man  who  is  a  criminal.    To  destroy  his  bodily  life  is  nothing 

\j^but  a  stupid  blunder. 

When  the  physical  life  of  a  criminal  is  cut  short  by  this  summary  and  unnatural 
means,  we  do  not  bring  to  an  end  thereby  the  evil  passions  which  prompted  the 
crime.  They  are  not  slain ;  they  continue  to  exist.  And,  having  no  longer  a  bodily 
tenement,  they  must  wander  abroad  to  prey  upon  the  community  and  inspire  fresh 
deeds  of  horror  in  weak  and  unbalanced  natures  whom  they  obsess.  Thus  are 
accounted  for  those  mysterious  outbursts  of  crime  which  so  puzzle  the  alienist, 
and  which  are  distinguished  by  the  frequent  confession,  "  I  do  not  know  why  I 
did  it,  but  something  came  over  me."  In  view  of  this  fact,  the  folly  of  capital 
punishment  is  more  glaring  than  ever. 

Capital  punishment  is  tantamount  to  a  repudiation  of  the  divine  nature  of  man. 
It  is  possible  to  justify  the  killing  of  a  noxious  animal  on  the  ground  that  its 
nature  does  not  admit  of  reform;  and  to  treat  a  man  in  the  same  way  is  to  liken 
him  to  an  animal.  On  what  principles  of  religion  or  philosophy  can  we  justify 
the  policy  of  depriving  a  human  being  like  ourselves  of  all  possibility  of  reform? 
If  we  profess  to  revere  a  God  of  mercy  and  justice,  and  if  we  ourselves  supplicate 
and  rely  on  that  Divine  mercy  and  justice,  how  can  we  reconcile  it  with  our  duty, 
as  men  created  in  the  Divine  image,  to  dismiss  thus  roughly  a  fellow  human  being 
from  our  midst  and  send  him  into  the  presence  of  the  Deity  whom  we  have  out- 
raged? Surely  it  is  our  duty  and  our  privilege  to  be  the  agents  of  the  Divine 
justice  and  mercy,  and  to  exert  to  the  utmost  our  God-given  powers  in  the  endeavor 
to  assist  our  fallen  brother  to  his  feet. 

It  is  well  within  the  power  of  existing  governments  to  provide  means  whereby 
murderers,  as  w^ell  as  other  criminals,  can  be  isolated  in  institutions  where  they 
can  be  humanely  treated  as  patients  or  people  of  unsound  mind.  And  this  must 
be  made  part  of  a  general  campaign  of  educative  and  remedial  treatment  of  crime 
outside  prison  walls.  Otherwise  prisons  will  be  —  what  they  too  often  are  — 
places  for  disposing  of  the  materials  which  we  manufacture  outside.  This  process 
of  first  carefully  manufacturing  criminals  and  then  killing  them  is  an  insult  to  our 
intelligence  and  culture.  We  must  stop  making  them;  and,  if  made,  we  must 
reform  them. 

Members  of  the  Universal  Brotherhood  and  Theosophical  Society,  under  the 


20  TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT 

direction  of  Katherine  Tingley,  have  had  large  experience  in  prison  work,  and  this 
experience  has  shown  them  that  the  most  apparently  hopeless  cases  will  respond 
to  the  right  treatment.  The  only  reason  why  such  cases  have  not  responded  before 
is  that  they  have  never  met  with  the  right  treatment.  All  too  frequently  their  self- 
respect,  already  so  diminished,  has  been  altogether  taken  away  by  the  reiterated 
assurance  that  they  are  wicked  and  hopeless.  Sinfulness  has  been  preached  to 
them,  and  thus  prison  has  become  a  place  for  the  destruction  of  character.  Theoso- 
phy  begins  by  insisting  upon  the  fact  that  all  men  are  divine,  and  that  no  case 
is  hopeless.  The  culprit  is  told  that  he  possesses  within  himself  a  divine  power  of 
self-reform,  and  is  shown  how  to  invoke  it.  His  lost  self-respect  is  restored,  and 
from  that  time  on  he  is  encouraged  to  pull  himself  together  and  overcome  his 
weaknesses.  Many  are  the  tales  which  Katherine  Tingley  and  those  who  have 
worked  with  her  in  the  prisons,  can  tell  of  reconstituted  characters  which,  from 
being  the  worst  of  the  worst,  have  become  sources  of  wonder  to  their  keepers, 
and  powers  of  help  to  their  fellow-prisoners.  It  is  the  earnest  desire  of  these 
prison-workers  to  demonstrate  to  as  many  people  as  possible  the  efficacy  of  this 
way  of  handling  prisoners,  so  that  there  may  no  longer  be  any  excuse  for  resorting 
to  stupid  and  barbarous  punishments,  and  so  that  civilization  at  large  may  have  a 
criminal  policy  worthy  of  the  present  status  of  culture. 

The  world  is  passing  through  a  crucial  stage  and  the  newborn  spirit  of  a 
kindly  intelligence  is  struggling  for  manifestation.  A  new  law  of  human  life  has 
been  impressed  upon  us  and  is  superseding  the  old  ideas  that  served  us  provision- 
ally in  the  past.  The  essence  of  this  law  is  mercy,  brotherhood.  But  humanity 
needs  help  and  light  in  its  endeavors  to  readjust  its  practices  to  its  new  and  broader 
principles,  its  finer  feelings.  This  help  Theosophy  can  give.  By  abolishing  capital 
punishment  in  those  places  where  it  still  prevails,  society  at  large  can  register  in 
telling  form  its  protest  against  all  that  is  unbrotherly,  craven  in  spirit,  ruthless, 
unintelligent.  The  new  law  which  we  all  recognize  allows  no  scope  for  punish- 
ment at  all  —  except  in  the  reformative  sense. 

Anger  and  fear  are  passions,  and  retribution  may  be  left  to  the  eternal  justice. 
Why  then  should  we  continue  to  justify  by  legal  sanction  a  procedure  which,  if 
committed  privately,  would  be  murder  pure  and  simple?  Why  should  the  state, 
which  represents  the  people,  continue  to  do  in  cold  calculation  deeds  which  the 
mere  criminal  only  perpetrates  in  the  heat  of  passion  and  madness?  In  truth  no 
reason  can  be  urged  in  justification  except  such  reasons  as  rest  on  a  repudiation 
of  our  divinity  and  our  responsibility  as  divine  beings  to  our  fellow-man.  Theoso- 
phists  therefore  appeal  to  humanity  to  lay  aside  its  fears,  its  prejudices,  and  its 
anger,  and  to  replace  them  by  a  large-hearted  intelligence ;  and  to  gain  new  con- 
fidence in  the  irresistible  power  of  a  strong  and  pure  motive.  Instead  of  resorting 
to  clumsy  and  inefficacious  methods  of  obviating  the  evils  which  we  permit  to  grow, 
let  us  grapple  with  the  whole  question  patiently  and  manfully,  assisting  our  fallen 
brother  in  every  way,  instead  of    heaping  fresh  woes  and  disabilities  upon  him. 


TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT  21 

KATHERINE    TINGLEY    ON     CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT 

Extracts  from  an  Address  at  Isis  Theater,  December  31,  1911 

KathErine  TI^XLE;Y's  address  on  this  occasion  was  given  to  a  crowded 
house,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Woman's  International  Theosophical  League  of 
Humanity  (unsectarian-humanitarian).  The  Theosophical  Leader  took  for  her 
theme  some  of  the  objects  of  the  Woman's  League,  viz: 

"  To  help  men  and  women  to  realize  the  nobility  of  their  calling  and  their 
true  position  in  life-" 

"  To  abolish  capital  punishment." 
"  To  abolish  vivisection." 

Every  one  of  the  audience  was  presented  with  a  petition,  with  a  request  to 
sign  the  same,  for  the  Abolishment  of  Capital  Punishment.  With  but  few 
exceptions  the  whole  of  the  audience  signed  the  petitions,  and  several  thousand 
signatures  were  afterwards  secured  from  other  citizens  of  San  Diego  and  for- 
warded to  the  Governor  of  the  State  of  California. 

A  Great  Lesson 

"  Let  me  give  an  illustration  which  has  its  application  here.  Only  yesterday 
one  of  our  citizens  went  out  in  the  morning  sunlight  of  this  beautiful  land  of 
ours,  probably  with  no  crime  in  his  heart.  He  doubtless  intended  to  do  his  duty 
by  himself  and  his  family  and  those  who  loved  him,  but  he  allowed  his  lower 
nature  to  get  control.  He  was  tempted,  he  took  one  drink,  then  another,  and 
tonight  he  is  behind  the  bars,  a  murderer !  and  in  a  home  in  this  city  there  sits 
an  unhappy  wife  and  mother  with  her  children  in  great  sorrow.  There  is  a 
lesson,  and  a  very  great  one,  in  this.  It  has  come  home  to  us  more  closely  than 
many  others,  for  we  know  that  crimes  are  being  committed  every  day  in  almost 
every  city,  many  of  them  of  a  kind  that  cannot  be  talked  about. 

"  Now  the  cause,  the  first  cause  of  this  man's  crime,  must  have  begun  years 
ago.  The  impulse  to  the  deed  could  not  have  all  come  about  in  so  short  a  time. 
The  seed  was  sown  through  lack  of  self-control  in  childhood,  and  throughout  his 
life  in  much  that  this  unfortunate  man  did  the  soul  had  no  part.  He  might  still 
have  gone  on  for  years  believing  in  right  action,  but  his  will  weakened  and  his 
lower  nature  gaining  power,  brought  about  the  tragedy.  Now,  under  the  common 
law,  he  may  be  hanged  or  electrocuted.  And  I  have  no  question  that  there  are 
many  in  the  city  today  who,  in  reading  of  the  tragedy,  and  considering  it,  will 
feel  that  his  life  should  be  taken  —  that's  the  pity  of  it ! 

"  My  plea  is  that  tonight  we  shall  make  a  strenuous  effort  through  signing 
the  papers  which  have  been  presented  to  you  by  me,  to  show  that  by  destroying 
life  it  is  utterly  impossible  to  lessen  crime,  or  to  reform  the  criminal.  This  un- 
fortunate man  behind  the  bars  needs  our  help  and  our  sympathy.  The  character 
of  the  man  needs  refashioning.  He  should  have  a  chance  as  every  criminal 
should  have,  to  begin  over  again,  in  just  the  same  way  that  you,  who  have  made 
lesser  mistakes,  have  your  chance  to  begin  over  again.  .  .  . 

"  How  can  we  expect  to  build  up  humanity  if  we  allow  the  thoughts  that  come 


22  TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT 

from  the  disposition  to  kill  to  remain  in  our  minds?  Consider  for  a  moment  the 
brutality  of  such  thoughts.  Consider  what  other  thoughts  are  invoked  by  such 
thoughts!  Realize  that  the  mind  is  an  instrument  that  is  played  upon  by  good 
and  evil,  and  that  if  the  mind  can  turn  av^ay  from  the  soul  urge,  the  soul  know- 
ledge, which  every  man  should  have,  and  permit  the  thought,  the  desire,  to  have 
a  man  executed,  right  then  and  there  is  a  beginning  of  thought  currents  on  planes 
that  we  cannot  see  —  currents  that  we  cannot  control,  that  cannot  be  caught  up 
with. 

Conditions    Surrounding    Us 

"  We  must  admit,  if  we  think  at  all,  that  there  are  invisible  conditions  sur- 
rounding us  which  we  know  nothing  about,  which  we  cannot  control,  but  they 
are  potent.  Sometimes  when  we  are  in  the  Light  for  a  moment  our  hearts  tell 
us  that  around  us  and  above  us  is  this  great  law  of  hope,  potent,  persuasive, 
seeking  to  lift  the  minds  of  men  to  that  knowledge  which  should  make  them 
realize  the  importance  of  recognizing  that  they  are  their  brothers'  keepers.  We 
are  failing,  absolutely  failing,  we  are  retrograding,  we  are  losing  some  of  the 
best  opportunities  of  our  lives,  when  we  listen  for  one  moment  to  any  plea,  any 
persuasion,  any  argument  that  may  stand  or  that  could  stand  for  capital  punish- 
ment. We  are  cultivating  something  in  our  minds  that  may  not  be  easily  elimin- 
ated;   we  are  encouraging  brutaHty  in  human  life. 

"  Fancy  for  a  moment  a  woman,  you  who  have  read  of  the  tragedy  that  I  am 
speaking  of,  soon  to  be  a  mother,  fancy,  under  the  psychological  influence  of 
one  in  the  family,  that  she  should  feel  that  this  man  should  be  killed ;  that 
she  should  think  so  forcefully  as  to  formulate  the  words,  '  I  would  be  glad  to 
see  him  hanged.'  What  an  awful  thing!  Consider  for  a  moment  a  thought  of 
that  kind,  stimulated  by  feeling,  resting  in  the  mind  and  tainting  the  blood  of 
a  mother.  Consider  how  far  it  may  go  in  the  making  or  marring  of  her  child's 
character.  That  child,  from  the  results  of  the  psychological  influence  seeming 
merely  to  pass  through  the  mother's  brain,  may  have  implanted  in  his  nature 
the  seed  of  resentment,  revenge,  and  unbrotherliness,  so  that  maybe  when  he 
grows  older  and  reaches  the  path  of  temptation,  where  he  feels  his  resentment 
must  act,  and  his  impulse  must  hold  sway,  he  too  may  become  a  criminal,  and 
he  too  may  be  condemned  to  death.  These  are  the  things  that  we  must  think 
about.  Not  just  what  we  see  and  feel,  but  the  invisible  forces  that  we  know  do 
exist  if  the  sun  shines,  and  the  flowers  bloom,  and  we  live. 

Theosophy    Gives    the    Key 

"  Theosophy  teaches  much  regarding  these  influences.  To  the  honest  faith- 
ful student  it  gives  the  key  that  will  open  his  eyes  to  revelations  almost  un- 
believable. But  there  are  students  and  students.  These  subjects  have  been 
studied  from  many  standpoints,  but  they  cannot  be  fully  understood  until  Theo- 
sophy is  understood  and  applied  to  daily  life.  I  hold  that  no  man  or  woman  is 
sufficiently  in  the  light  to  interpret  tlie  principles  of  Theosophy  rightly,  clearly, 
definitely,  until  Theosophy  has  been  made  a  living  power  in  his  or  her  life. 

"  We  cannot  advance  the  best  interests  of  humanity  by  mere  intellect,  nor  by 
mere  preaching,  nor  by  all  the  sophistries  in  the  world.     We  must  stand  on 


TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT  23 

the  foundation  of  truth.  We  must  have  a  basis  of  positive  knowledge  of  our- 
selves, of  who  we  are,  why  we  are  here,  what  life  means,  and  what  are  the 
laws  that  govern  life  —  laws  so  sacred,  so  profound,  so  persuasive,  so  com- 
passionate, so  enlightening,  right  at  the  door  of  every  human  mind. 

"  And  yet,  many  of  the  human  family  go  through  life,  placing  stumbling- 
blocks  not  only  in  their  own  way,  but  in  the  way  of  their  neighbors  —  not  with 
evil  intent,  but  simply  because  they  cannot  find  time  to  search  for  the  Truth. 
These  things  are  too  far-fetched,  they  say.  But  we  cannot  bring  God,  so  to 
speak,  right  down  here  and  have  him  manifest  just  according  to  our  mental 
measurement,  our  intellectual  yard-stick,  can  we? 

"  We,  the  thinkers  of  this  present  generation,  the  supposed  protectors  of  our 
brothers,  have  not  reached  the  point  of  understanding  where  we  can  stand  up 
and  face  these  conditions,  and  meet  them  understandingly  —  the  deplorable  con- 
ditions referred  to  —  we  cannot  face  our  own  weaknesses  as  bravely  and  steadily 
and  soulfully  as  we  should ;  we  are  unable  to  do  it,  we  think.  We  begin  at  forty 
to  grow  old ;  at  fifty  we  have  one  foot  in  the  grave ;  at  sixty  we  are  almost 
over  the  border,  according  to  the  accepted  way  of  thinking. 

Working     on    Wrong    Lines 

"  Under  such  a  regime  of  thought  we  are  working  on  the  wrong  lines;  we  are 
wasting  our  energy,  losing  our  opportunities,  failing  in  the  truest  sense.  We  cling 
to  our  puny  personalities  as  though  we  were  to  have  them  for  all  time.  And 
there  are  many  of  us  who  look  at  life  so  lightly  that  time  is  not  counted.  Every- 
thing is  in  a  rush,  a  mad  rush ;  many  are  in  the  great  vortex  of  money-grabbing, 
money-grinding  and  pleasure-seeking  to  such  a  degree  that  the  soul  life  cannot 
shine.  Many  are  hypocrites,  and  many  of  the  women  and  men  today  who 
stand  before  the  world  with  all  the  appearance  of  being  just  and  true  and 
strong,  are  the  opposite,  and  the  reason  all  humanity  does  not  know  it,  is  because 
we  have  educated  ourselves  to  judge  from  appearances,  to  accept  profession 
and  preaching,  rather  than  the  life.  It  is  the  life,  the  life  that  must  be  lived 
if  we  are  to  reach  that  point  that  is  necessary  for  man  to  realize  the  nobility  of 
his  calling. 

"  It  must  be  a  true,  sweet,  strong,  unselfish  life ;  it  must  be  based  on  the 
knowledge  of  the  true.  When  this  is  done  we  shall  begin  to  refashion  not  only 
our  lives  in  a  new  way,  but  to  refashion  the  lives  of  our  brothers.  It  is  absolutely 
impossible  for  a  man  to  lead  a  true,  strenuous,  unselfish  life  and  live  separate 
from  his  neighbor.  He  must  necessarily  affect  those  about  him  for  good.  He 
must  stimulate  their  thoughts  to  better  action;  he  must  be  a  splendid  example 
of  soulful,  upright  manhood  all  along  the  way. 

Face;  the  Facts 
"  But  now  let  us  be  courageous.  Let  us  face  the  facts.  Let  us  face  ourselves. 
Let  us  look  at  the  real  conditions  of  human  life  as  they  are  today.  Let  us 
declare  in  justice  to  the  law  and  in  justice  to  ourselves  that  most  of  us  have 
missed  the  mark ;  that  where  there  is  one  man  standing  out  strong  and  true  and 
living  up  to  his  ideals,  unselfishly  and  trustingly,  endeavoring  to  perform  in  all  his 
acts  his  whole  duty  —  where  there  is  one  such,  there  are  hundreds  who  are  going 
the  other  w^ay;   and  with  the  women  it  is  the  same. 


24  TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT 

"  Why  not  acknowledge  this  ?  Why  not  declare  that  it  is  so  ?  Why  cannot 
women  find  this  power  that  I  speak  of,  this  knowledge  that  is  at  hand.  Why 
cannot  they,  in  the  truest  and  fullest  and  most  sacred  sense,  realize  the  nobility 
of  their  calling  and  their  true  position  in  life.     Why  cannot  they? 

"  We  should  not  have  to  wait  for  the  appearance  of  a  new  planet  or  for 
new  laws  or  for  a  new  land  to  rise  out  of  the  sea,  to  give  us  more  opportunities. 
No,  we  have  the  power  right  at  hand.  We  hold  the  key.  The  power  is  here 
in  the  heart,  in  the  soul  —  that  divine  power  that  never  will  fail  us  if  we  will  only 
take  time  to  think  more  seriously,  more  profoundly,  realize  more  and  more 
what  life  is  and  what  our  responsibilities  are.  .  .  . 

A   New   Time   for    Humanity 

"  Before  many  years  a  new  time  shall  dawn  for  humanity.  We  shall  then 
know  that  men  and  women  have  begun  to  find  their  true  position  in  life  and 
that  a  beginning  has  been  made  of  something  so  splendid,  so  inspiring,  so  true, 
that  those  who  have  faltered  before  will  come  under  its  influence.  In  no  long 
time  we  shall  hear  of  humanity  beginning  really  to  be  refashioned  on  higher  lines. 

"  I  am  not  talking  about  something  far  away  in  the  future.  My  simple  pleading 
certainly  need  not  strain  your  mentality  or  your  imagination.  There  is  some  logic 
in  my  argument.  If  I  could  —  oh,  if  I  had  the  power  to  touch  your  hearts  with- 
out a  word,  and  awaken  you  and  all  humanity  to  the  opportunity  of  the  NOW  of 
the  coming  year,  of  that  time  which  in  a  few  moments  shall  be  ours  and  which 
will  never  come  again.  Yes,  I  say,  if  I  had  the  power;  but  since  I  have  not, 
I  must  do  my  best  in  simple  words  to  plead  and  urge,  and  to  try  to  evoke  a  new 
spirit  among  men,  an  awakening  of  the  Christos  spirit.  If  it  could  be  awakened ! 
Oh!  if  we  could  lift  the  hearts  and  minds  of  men  above  their  limitations,  what 
joy  would  be  ours ! 

A    Daring    Prophecy 

"  I  am  looking  forward  to  the  possibility,  and  I  believe  it  is  coming,  because 
I  have  faith  in  humanity  in  spite  of  all  its  weaknesses,  that  before  I  leave  this 
life  the  prisons  will  be  closed. 

"  A  daring  prophecy,  you  say  —  that  many  of  these  distressing  restrictions 
that  we  have  about  us  in  our  daily  commercial  life,  to  protect  ourselves  against 
each  other  will  not  exist;  because  men  and  women,  having  found  the  nobility 
of  their  calling,  their  true  positions  in  life,  must  necessarily  evoke  that  new 
quality  of  honor,  that  finer  sense  of  honor,  that  lies  sleeping  in  the  hearts  of  all. 

"  I  had  a  glimpse  of  it  yesterday  in  looking  over  a  paper  —  and  I  can  imagine 
that  some  of  my  unfriendly  critics  will  smile  —  a  picture  of  something  of  this 
kind,  where  the  sense  of  honor,  the  spirit  of  honor,  had  developed  to  a  degree 
in  a  man  who  was  condemned  to  life  imprisonment  for  murder  in  Oregon.  To 
the  Oregon  state  prison  our  workers  have  for  many  years  been  going  regularly 
—  before  Governor  West  became  Governor  —  and  Governor  West  has  done  some 
splendid  things  in  trying  to  evoke  this  spirit  of  brotherhood  and  to  encourage  the 
prisoners  to  better  thought  and  action. 

"  A  few  months  ago  —  about  six  or  seven  —  he  became  acquainted  with  the 
history  of  one  of  the  men  there  condemned  for  life.    It   seems  that  in  the  attempt 


TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT  25 

to  save  this  man's  life  his  father-in-law  had  mortgaged  his  house  and  used  all 
his  money,  and  the  family  was  left  destitute.  When  the  condemned  man  heard 
of  it  his  grief  was  very  great  —  he  had  murdered,  that  was  true,  but  his  soul 
was  speaking,  his  conscience,  and  when  he  found  that  while  he,  although  wretched 
and  miserable,  was  cared  for  to  a  degree  in  prison,  outside  his  family  was  suffer- 
ing, and  an  old  man,  his  father-in-law,  who  had  sacrificed  his  all  for  him.  He 
asked  Governor  West  to  let  him  out  on  his  word  of  honor.  Think  of  it!  A  few 
years  ago  the  people  of  Oregon  would  have  said  Governor  West  was  mad,  crazy, 
unfit  to  be  Governor  to  think  of  such  nonsense  as  letting  a  prisoner  free  even 
for  an  hour  —  a  menace  to  the  public !  Well,  Governor  West  permitted  this  man 
to  go,  on  his  honor,  to  his  home.  He  went  home,  worked  six  months,  cleared  off 
the  mortgage,  and  then  walked  back  into  the  prison  to  take  up  his  life  sentence 
and  the  routine  of  the  prison.  Is  not  this  something  to  think  about?  Is  this 
not  encouraging? 

Helpful    Influence 

"  Now,  do  you  suppose  that  this  poor  fellow  found  his  conscience  and  his 
sense  of  honor  all  by  himself?  Do  you  not  believe  that  the  helpful  influence  of 
the  members  of  the  Universal  Brotherhood  and  Theosophical  Society  who  visited 
the  prison  from  time  to  time  and  worked  there  as  the  opportunities  oflFered,  and 
who  had  the  hearty,  splendid,  unselfish  co-operation  of  the  Governor  —  do  you 
not  believe  that  the  helpful  influence  of  the  lives  of  these  members,  their  example, 
their  pleadings,  their  urging,  their  teachings  touched  this  man  and  awoke  his 
conscience,  and  that  then  was  born  the  sense  of  honor  which  he  may  never  have 
known  anything  about  before? 

"  I  could  tell  you  of  hundreds  of  similar  cases  in  my  own  experience  of  the 
evoking  of  the  sense  of  honor  in  human  nature,  for  I  have  met  men  and  women 
who  found  themselves  at  the  tag  end  of  things  —  who  had  lost  all  hope  in  life  — 
some  of  whom  had  committed  crimes  —  and  in  my  simple  pleadings,  my  friendli- 
ness, my  trust  in  the  divinity  of  man  —  I  challenged  those  whom  I  was  helping  to 
a  new  sense  of  honor,  to  a  new  way  of  thinking  and  living,  thus  I  urged  them  to 
a  higher  state  of  consciousness  and  they  reformed. 

"  Oh,  that  indescribable,  glorious  power  that  can  come  to  men  and  women 
and  make  all  trials  seem  as  naught :  that  they  can  reach  to  a  path  along  which 
they  can  walk  understandingly,  in  the  light,  knowing  the  law,  believing  its  power, 
living  soulfully  and  righteously,  and  in  that  spirit  of  honor  that  we  must  evoke 
among  men  before  we  can  expect  humanity  to  find  its  true  position  in  life. 

"  The  small  beginnings,  the  sowing  of  a  few  seeds  here  and  there  in  a  right 
spirit  —  these  are  the  things  that  count.  But  one  who  professes  to  have  the  truth 
must  live  the  truth  as  best  he  can,  and  his  life  must  stand  out  in  conformity  with 
his  teachings  if  he  would  have  power.  The  only  way  this  can  come  is  by  doing 
the  right  thing  at  the  right  time  in  that  spirit  of  brotherhood  that  can  be  ours  if 
we  will. . . . 

Knowledge   of   the   Laws   of   Life 
"The  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  life  brings  compassion,  creates  mercy  and 
makes  one  ready  always  to  forgive  even  one's  traducers  and  one's  persecutors. 
It  gives  one  strength  and  love  and  courage;    fear  is  unknown.     That  is  what 


26  TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT 

men  and  women  need  —  to  be  so  sure  of  their  position  in  life,  their  true  position, 
that  they  know  not  fear. 

"  Then  the  human  mind  would  grasp  the  joy  of  Hving.  No  matter  how  old 
they  may  be,  they  would  begin  to  live  with  no  fear  of  the  morrow,  no  fear  of 
death,  or  of  sickness,  no  fear  of  anything  except  the  fear  of  failing  in  their 
duty  to  others. 

"  That  is  the  new  life ;  that  is  the  true  position  in  life ;  where  the  conscience 
and  the  soul  work  in  consonance,  and  the  power  evoked  from  within  works  out 
on  practical  lines  and  turns  the  tide  of  human  life  for  better  things. 

Greater  than  We  Dream 

"  We  mortals  are  greater  than  we  dream.  Man  is  a  potent  power  in  the 
universe,  and  if  we  can  only  touch  the  minds  of  men,  make  them  dare  to  do 
something  new  at  this  splendid  time  —  what  can  we  not  hope  for  ?  Let  me  talk 
to  you,  because  I  am  deeply  in  earnest.  Face  yourselves.  Think,  think!  Study 
your  lives.  Study  your  past.  Shut  out  fear  of  everything  that  has  not  brought 
you  to  the  highest.  Seek  a  new  path;  but  begin  understandingly ;  let  my  per- 
suasion touch  your  hearts  so  that  you  may  feel  within  yourselves  what  I  know 
exists.  To  find  knowledge  and  feel  the  impulse  of  the  silent  flow  of  soul-life  is 
what  humanity  most  needs. 

"  If  humanity  had  lived  up  to  what  its  own  conscience  had  taught,  we  should 
all  be  greater  than  we  are  today,  we  should  all  be  workers  for  humanity.  There 
would  not  be  this  old  hard  strain  of  merely  a  few  working  for  mankind.  The 
moment  that  human  life  is  readjusted,  the  victory  is  won.  But,  as  we  know, 
most  unselfish  workers  have  fallen  under  the  hand  of  the  critic  or  the  persecutor. 
We  have  been  destroying  our  teachers  and  reformers  all  down  the  ages;  so  that 
but  few  have  fulfilled  their  mission.  Look  at  history.  See  how  we  have  per- 
secuted the  unselfish  helpers  of  humanity  who  came  to  work  with  us  at  different 
periods  to  evoke  in  us  the  true  and  to  bring  out  this  royal  and  splendid  life. 

"  My  hope  is  that  my  pleadings  tonight  for  the  criminal,  the  condemned,  may 
touch  you  so  that  you  cannot  sleep  until  you  have  signed  the  papers  that  I  have 
presented  to  you  for  your  signature.  I  would  like  San  Diego  to  have  the  honor 
of  approaching  the  New  Year  in  a  new  spirit  of  brotherly  love,  with  that  quality 
that  must  exist  if  we  are  to  live  in  any  sense  righteously. 

By  a  Stroke  of  the  Pen 
"  The  influence  of  such  an  action  would  not  only  touch  and  affect  in  a  very 
remarkable  way  those  who  are  condemned,  but  have  you  thought  of  what  it 
would  do  for  those  at  home  who  are  not  conscious  of  having  had  any  part  in  the 
crimes  of  those  who  are  condemned?  Have  you  thought  of  the  old  mothers  and 
fathers  and  the  wives  and  the  little  children?  Have  you  ever  thought  how  much 
by  a  stroke  of  your  pen,  written  from  conviction,  how  much  sorrow  you  could 
lift  and  how  much  happiness  you  could  send  forth  into  the  world  tonight?  Think 
of  it!  The  mother  who  sits  tonight  expecting  every  day  to  hear  that  her  son 
whom  she  loves  and  whom  she  cannot  believe  is  guilty,  even  though  he  were 
convicted,  and  may  be  hanged,  and  then  later  hears  that  by  the  mercy,  the  gener- 
osity, the  spirit  of  brotherliness,  evoked  by  the  citizens  of  San  Diego,  the  State 
of  California  shall  not  have  the  power  to  take  a  human  life!  .  .  . 


TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT  27 

"  But  we  ought  to  do  more  than  this.  Think  of  the  influence  such  a  splendid 
effort  would  have  on  the  human  family  at  large.  Now  I  hold  that  of  those  who 
commit  crimes  there  are  only  a  few  who  are  so  lost  and  dead  to  life  that  they 
never  think  and  work  on  right  lines ;  but  I  try  to  feel  that  the  majority  are  trying. 
Can  you  not  imagine  the  act  of  a  united  force  like  yourselves  in  signing  this  paper 
for  the  abolishment  of  Capital  Punishment,  what  an  effect  it  would  have  in  pre- 
venting crime?  Now  some  of  you  may  call  that  a  false  argument,  but  it  is  not. 
Wherever  I  have  read  the  statistics  of  states  in  this  country  and  in  other  countries 
that  have  abolished  capital  punishment,  with  but  few  exceptions,  they  have  had 
fewer  crimes,  less  murders,  than  in  the  preceding  years.  I  tell  you,  you  cannot 
realize  how  far  a  few  good  seeds  sown  by  you  will  go.  You  have  no  idea  of  what 
you  will  accomplish  by  this  act  which  I  am  pleading  for. 

A   Personal   Appeal 

"  Now  let  me  bring  it  home  to  you.  Do  you  not  know  that  if,  from  the  convic- 
tion of  your  conscience  you  can  do  your  part  in  eliminating  Capital  Punishment 
from  the  statutes  of  our  State,  that  some  blessing  will  come  to  you?  After  this, 
you  will  begin  to  study  the  common  and  the  higher  law  differently,  more  sym- 
pathetically. You  will  better  understand  yourselves.  You  will  have  opened  a 
door  by  that  protest  against  a  wrong  to  a  brother,  no  matter  what  his  crime,  and 
other  doors  of  your  hearts  and  minds  will  open;  then  an  overwhelming  sense 
of  peace  will  be  yours  —  the  peace  that  passeth  all  understanding.  I  know  it ; 
I  know  it  from  my  own  experience.  I  know  what  it  is.  Yet  we  must  not  work 
for  reward,  says  Theosophy,  but  if  it  comes  it  is  a  very  delightful  thing  to  re- 
cognize; to  feel  its  sweet  inspiring  touch  in  the  life;  to  have  it  as  an  incentive 
to  push  us  on  to  more  humane  endeavor ;  to  bring  us  closer  to  the  suffering  of 
our  fellows  and  to  lead  us  to  such  a  point  of  understanding  that  many  of  the 
things  that  we  mistakenly  thought  were  best,  nearest  to  our  hearts,  but  which 
never  satisfied,  will  pass  away  and  in  place  we  shall  have  fuller  knowledge.  We 
shall  find  that  we  are  stronger  in  our  true  positions  in  life.  This  influence  is 
so  ennobling,  so  uplifting,  so  like  a  baptism  of  the  spirit  of  the  Christos  that  the 
Nazarene  spoke  of !  Just  try  it.  You  will  never  talk  about  it  because  it  will 
be  so  true  and  deep  and  sacred;  you  will  have  something  in  your  lives  that 
you  have  never  had  before. 

"  To  carry  on  a  work  of  this  kind,  to  work  in  sympathy  with  our  fellows  so 
that  they  do  not  lose  their  chances,  so  to  speak,  will  bring  us  to  a  point  of  under- 
standing life  in  a  new  way  and  of  solving  many  of  the  problems  and  mysteries 
in  our  own  natures  that  have  helped  to  confuse  and  mislead  and  discourage  us. 

"Oh!  there  is  no  limit  to  these  possibilities;  there  is  no  limit.  It  cannot 
be  fully  realized  in  words.  One  has  to  find  the  light  through  knowledge  and 
experience. 

To   Abolish   Vivisection 

"  There  is  another  object :  to  abolish  vivisection.  I  believe  that  we  arc  educat- 
ing murderers ;  we  are  making  them  by  encouraging  vivisection.  I  have  respect 
for  the  medical  profession.  I  know  that  we  are  in  this  world  to  help  and  serve 
each  other.    We  should  be  very  miserable  and  have  a  great  deal  of  difficulty  were 


28  TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT 

it  not  for  the  medical  fraternity.  I  think  the  doctors  do  marvelous  things  under 
the  conditions  they  have  to  contend  with  in  treating  their  patients.  They  cannot, 
as  a  rule,  control  their  environment;  they  cannot  ingrain  into  their  minds  the 
necessary  knowledge  that  should  work  in  consonance  with  the  treatment.  They 
have  much  against  them.  So  I  am  in  sympathy  with  them.  But  I  am  not  with 
them  so  far  that  I  can  believe  that  in  order  to  save  human  life  we  must  sacrifice 
life.    It  is  wrong,  against  the  law  of  justice,  and  never  will  it  bring  a  right  result. 

"  A  man  who  can  sit  and  vivisect  from  day  to  day  is  sowing  seeds  in  his 
nature  the  harvest  of  which  he  will  have  to  reap  some  day  under  conditions  that 
he  does  not  dream  of.  The  law  is  direct  —  this  higher  law ;  you  cannot  play 
with  it;  you  cannot  abuse  it  without  paying  the  penalty.  What  about  the  little 
child  that  may  come  into  the  family  of  that  doctor  ?  I  am  not  saying  that  all  the 
children  of  doctors,  if  they  are  vivisectors,  are  going  to  do  something  wrong,  or 
commit  crimes ;  but  there  is  the  danger,  a  very  great  one,  very  great  —  a  psycho- 
logical study,  this! 

"  I  hold  that  those  men,  all  those  who  in  their  interest  uphold  vivisection  — 
though  honest  people,  well-meaning,  anxious  to  save  human  life,  intent  in  their 
practice,  even  their  motives  they  may  think  are  pure  —  are  blind  to  the  results 
that  they  are  bringing  about.  I  declare  that  the  vivisector  is  planting  seeds  be- 
yond his  control,  and  is  working  against  the  higher  law  of  justice  by  taking  life 
to  save  life.  But  it  is  contrary  to  the  higher  law.  The  vivisector  may  be  so  self- 
hypnotized  that  he  thinks  he  is  right;  but  he  will  go  wrong  on  some  line;  in 
surgery,  perhaps ;  becoming  so  accustomed  to  using  the  knife  that  when  he  comes 
to  a  human  being,  the  desire  to  do  a  little  more  cutting  may  go  beyond  his  control. 
The  psychological  power  of  these  things  is  tremendous.  We  must  study  them  not 
only  as  to  the  influence  on  the  vivisector  himself,  but  on  those  whom  he  contacts 
—  the  influence  of  even  the  idea  of  the  act  of  vivisection  is  brutalizing.  One  who 
can  take  part  in  the  vivisection  and  torture  of  a  helpless  animal  is  hardening  his 
finer  sensibilities.  He  is  destroying  a  part  of  the  finer  structure  of  his  being; 
he  is  cultivating  cruelty,  though  he  may  not  admit  it ;  becoming  hardened ;  losing 
something  of  the  finer  sensibility  that  he  will  never  find  again;  misusing  the 
higher  qualities  of  his  nature.     So  I  must  stand  out  against  vivisection. 

"  We  know  that  dogs  especially  have  given  us  evidence  all  along  the  line  of 
a  rare  quality  of  fidelity,  self-sacrifice  and  instinct  that  is  a  great  study.  Some- 
times a  man  will  think  that  he  has  many  friends  who  will  stand  by  him;  but 
when  trouble  comes  they  leave  him ;  but  you  will  find  his  dog  stays.  History 
repeats  itself  right  along  in  this  way. 

"  Life  for  a  life  —  never !  Eye  for  an  eye  —  never !  according  to  the  ordinary 
acceptance  of  the  term.  These  words  must  be  interpreted  Theosophically  if  we 
are  to  understand  their  meaning.  Vivisection  must  go,  says  Theosophy.  Wars 
must  go ;  capital  punishment  must  go ;  vice  must  go ;  and  men  and  women  must 
find  the  nobility  of  their  calling  ere  it  is  too  late.  It  is  coming  some  day.  Oh,  it 
is  my  prayer,  my  urge,  that  when  light  comes  in  the  morning  time  of  the  new 
year  we  shall  find  ourselves  readjusted  to  the  higher  convictions,  to  the  ennobling 
part  of  our  nature  to  such  a  degree  that  we  cannot  turn  away  from  the  companion- 
ship of  our  divine  natures.  We  shall  then  realize  the  necessity  of  being  our 
brothers'  keepers." 


TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT  29 

Extracts  from  other  Lectures,  Speeches,  etc.,  by  Katherine  Tingley 

on  Capital  Punishment 

"  Widespread  evils  are  eating  out  the  heart  of  humanity,  capital  punishment 
is  but  one  of  the  signs  of  the  appalHng  conditions  that  threaten  our  present-day 
civilization. 

"  Man  is  his  brother's  keeper.  Society  as  a  whole,  and  not  merely  the  indi- 
vidual, is  responsible  for  the  wrong  social  conditions  of  which  the  criminal  is  the 
outcome. 

"  What  are  the  characteristic  marks  of  the  social  conditions  of  the  present  day? 
Do  we  not  find  prominent  among  them  self-indulgence,  gratification  of  lower 
passions,  secret  vice,  eating  away  the  moral  stamina  of  our  youth,  and  general 
lack  of  self-control  beginning  in  childhood,  unobserved  even  by  many  of  those  who 
have  the  greatest  desire  to  protect  their  children? 

"  Society  has  no  right  to  make  a  scapegoat  of  one  who  is  a  product  of  its 
own  follies,  its  own  weaknesses,  its  unbrotherliness. 

"  Capital  punishment  is  inhuman,  barbarous,  and  entirely  out  of  keeping  with 
the  most  enlightened  and  progressive  views  of  today  in  regard  to  the  duty  of 
society  and  of  the  State  to  criminals,  namely,  that  it  is  the  State's  duty  to  reform 
and  not  to  punish. 

"  The  removal  of  this  blot,  of  capital  punishment,  from  our  twentieth  century 
civilization  must  come  from  an  enlightened  public  sentiment,  and  a  recognition 
of  the  fact  that  we  are  our  brother's  keeper. 

"  The  criminal  is  a  human  being  like  ourselves,  who  in  the  vast  majority  of 
cases  has  had  little  or  no  opportunity  of  education  or  helpful  home  influence,  and 
therefore  demands  our  assistance  and  encouragement,  and  not  our  condemnation. 
Who  of  you  men  and  women  can  say  that  if  you  had  been  in  like  circumstances 
as  your  brother  now  under  sentence  of  death,  you  might  not  have  given  way  as  he 
to  the  impulse  of  anger  and  passion  and  hate  ?  Who  of  you  is  there  that  has  not 
at  some  time  in  his  life  felt  the  impulse  to  passion  and  revenge  for  some  real  or 
fancied  wrong  ?  Who  has  not  at  some  time  given  way  to  passion  or  hatred,  or  had 
the  temptation  to  do  so,  and  had  it  not  been  for  some  restraining  influence,  whether 
of  early  training  and  education,  or  some  power  of  self-control  and  force  of  char- 
acter on  ennobling  lines,  or  perhaps  some  outer  restraining  circumstance,  might 
have  committed  the  irrevocable  deed  of  taking  life?  And  shall  you  separate  your- 
self from  your  weaker  brother  and  say  like  the  Pharisee,  '  Lord,  I  thank  thee  that 
I  am  not  as  other  men,  extortioners,  unjust,  adulterers,  or  even  as  this  publican ' 
—  or  this  murderer  —  and  draw  the  robe  of  your  self-righteousness  about  you  and 
refuse  help  to  your  weaker  brother? 

"  O  ye  men  and  women,  fathers  and  mothers,  were  that  poor  unfortunate  who 
is  now  in  the  shadow  of  the  gallows  —  were  he  indeed  your  son,  or  your  brother, 
would  you  leave  a  stone  unturned  to  save  him,  to  recall  him  to  the  nobler,  better 
side  of  his  nature,  that  he  might  once  more  strive  in  the  upward  path  ?  Or  would 
you  deny  that  he  is  your  brother,  and  thrust  him  out  into  the  darkness  like  a  thing 
accursed?  If  the  latter,  dare  you  then  call  yourself  a  Christian,  one  of  God's  great 
family  ? 


30  TO    ABOLISH    CAPITAL    PUNISHMENT 

"  It  is  not  sentiment,  it  is  the  divine  law  of  our  being  that  makes  all  men 
brothers.  The  reasoning  that  argues  for  condemning  and  hanging  a  brother  is  false 
reasoning,  springing  from  a  false  conception  of  justice.  True  justice,  the  highest 
reasoning,  and  the  strictest  logic  take  into  account  the  laws  of  life  and  proclaim 
mercy,  compassion,  and  mutual  responsibility.  If  you  condemn  your  brother  to 
death,  or  acquiesce  in  his  condemnation  under  man-made  laws,  do  you  not  thereby 
condemn  yourselves  as  murderers  equally  with  him  —  nay  worse  than  he,  because 
you  have  not  the  excuse  that  your  deed  is  the  outcome  of  uncontrolled  passion 
and  hate,  but  is  deliberate  and  in  cold  blood?  That  is  the  cold  logic  of  it,  that  is 
the  true  reasoning. 

"  But  let  your  heart  speak,  recognize  the  man  as  your  brother  —  a  weaker,  err- 
ing brother  —  realize  your  responsibility  in  common  with  the  whole  human  race 
for  the  conditions  that  make  the  criminal,  and  the  logic  of  it,  the  true  reasoning, 
will  point  the  way  to  the  fulfilment  of  that  responsibility  by  seeking  to  reform 
him,  to  educate  him,  to  encourage  and  help  him,  that  he  may  awake  to  his  respon- 
sibility as  a  member  of  society,  just  as  in  degree  you  have  awakened  to  your 
responsibility. 

"  By  so  doing  can  you  alone  do  justice,  justice  to  the  criminal,  justice  to  society, 
and  justice  to  yourself. 

"  The  solution  of  this  problem,  which  is  to  be  found  in  Theosophy  alone,  lies 
in  the  recognition  of  the  dual  nature  of  every  man,  that  every  man  is  a  divine  soul, 
inhabiting  a  body  with  animal  instincts  and  passions.  The  only  way  for  society 
to  safeguard  itself  is  to  fulfil  its  duty  to  the  criminal,  which  is  also  its  duty  to  itself, 
by  seeking  the  proper  means  to  reform  him.  To  execute  him  is  only  to  shirk  the 
responsibility,  and  I  boldly  say  that  the  only  system  that  affords  a  solution  to  the 
problem  and  can  effectively  reform  and  transform  the  criminal  is  Theosophy." 


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THI?  LIBllARY 

CNIVilESITY  OF  CALIFORNU^ 

LOS  ANGELES 


To  Abolish  Capital  Punishment 

A  Plea  to  the  Citizens  of  Every  Country 

To  Those  who  Receive  this  Pamphlet: 

Will  you  help  in  this  worldwide  effort  to  abolish  capital  punishment  in  all  states  and  countries 
where  it  is  still  enforced,  and  thus  remove  this  blot  from  our  civilization? 

You  are  earnestly  requested  to  bring  this  pamphlet  to  the  attention  of  your  friends,  and  secure 
as  many  names  as  possible,  with  full  postal  addresses,  to  the  following  petition,  sending  the  same  in  the 
U.  S.  A.  to  the  Governor  of  your  State,  and  to  your  Representative  in  the  State  Legislature ;  in  England, 
to  the  Home  Secretary,  and  to  the  Member  representing  you  in  Parliament;  or  to  the  proper  minister  or 
official  in  the  country  in  which  you  reside.  You  are  also  requested  to  send  a  duplicate  list  of  such 
names  and  addresses  to  the  Secretary,  Woman's  International  Theosophical  League,  (unsectarian-human- 
itarian)  Point  Loma,  California,  thus  aiding  us  by  your  encouragement  and  co-operation. 

A  very  large  number  of  single  copies  of  these  pamphlets  are  being  distributed  free ;  further  copies 
may  be  obtained,  post-paid,  as  follows ;  tON     S  i- 

Per  copy        W  in  U.  S.  A.  5d  in  England   .,,„ -R.A.   pEli''^ 
10  copies 
50     " 


10^  in  U.  S.  A.  5d  in  England   ^n'Rji. 
50/  "       "       2'  •■       "        '  ^ 


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$2.00  "       "      8  4  "       "  s»al    <'"■ 

Order  from  The  Secretary,  Woman's  International  Theosophical  League,  Point  Loma,  California,  or 
from  The  Theosophical  Book  Co.,  18,  Bartlett's  Bldgs.,  Holbom  Circus,  London,  E.  C.  England. 


A  Petition  for  the  Abolition  of  Capital  Punishment 


Whereas  the  death  penalty  is  barbarous,  ineffective  in  checking  crime,  contrary  to  the  dictates  of 
humanity,  and  violates  the  sacredness  of  human  life; 

We,  the  undersigned  protest  against  the  infliction  of  this  penalty,  and  make  this  appeal  for  the 
abolishment  of  Capital  Punishment. 

We  respectfully  call  upon  you  as  ( Governor,  Representative,  Senator,  Member  of  Parliament,  or 
- )  to  use  the  influence  of  your  honorable  position  to  introduce 


and  support  such  measures  as  may  result  in  removing  this  blot  from  the  statutes  of  our  state  and  country. 
Name  Number,  Street  City  and  State 


The  Aryan  Theosophical  Press 
Point  Loma,  California  • 


THI9  LimiARY 

IJNIVMtSlTY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


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